Thursday, December 22, 2011

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

When Java was gaining prominence a few years ago, the debate around performance of applications built using Java/C/C++ used to happen quite often. However when Java took over the world, the performance debate nearly died down even though C/C++ applications play fairly well when it comes to performance. With the above context of performance, I recently came across the article from Azul systems comparing the instances where Java applications fair well as compared to C/C++ and vice versa. Read the complete article here

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Tortoise SVN behaves sometimes pretty weird but not with respect to functionality but with display. Recently while playing with TSVN 1.5.5 and found that it is not displaying icons to show the file/folder status. I am running it on WinXP with sufficient memory on it.

In fact, displaying the status through Icon overlays is one of the key features with TSVN. After googling around for sometime and trying various options, zeroed down on one. The solution that worked for me included changing the "Cache status" from "Default" to "Shell".

Following image would show the new status. One can access Cache status by right clicking on the windows explorer --> Tortoise SVN --> Settings --> Icon Overlays

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Following paragraph provides detailed steps1. Install Apache 2.22. During subversion installation ensure that you choose the proper Binding ie. Apache 2.2 (in our case)3. Using the windows explorer, go to the installation directory of Subversion (usually c:\program files\Subversion) and find the files /httpd/mod_dav_svn.so and mod_authz_svn.so. Copy these files to the Apache modules directory (usually c:\program files\apache group\apache2\modules ).4. Copy the file /bin/libdb*.dll and /bin/intl3_svn.dll from the Subversion installation directory to the Apache bin directory.5. Edit Apache's configuration file (usually C:\Program Files\Apache Group\Apache2\conf\httpd.conf) with a text editor such as Notepad and make the following changes:

Uncomment (remove the '#' mark) the following lines: #LoadModuledav_fs_module modules/mod_dav_fs.so #LoadModuledav_module modules/mod_dav.soAdd the following two lines to the end of the LoadModule section. LoadModuledav_svn_module modules/mod_dav_svn.soLoadModuleauthz_svn_module modules/mod_authz_svn.so6. Now you are ready to check out the files. Create a local working folder and do an initial check out. Create the following folders trunk, branches and tags. Check in these folders into the repository. The main directories that you need to add to repository for the first time should go into trunk folder.

Whenever one wants to tag the code, you can do so by adding tags/ to the repository URL.

ConfigurationNow you have set up Apache and Subversion, but Apache doesn't know how to handle Subversion clients like TortoiseSVN yet. To get Apache to know which URL will be used for Subversion repositories you have to edit the Apache configuration file (usually located in c:\program files\apache group\apache2\conf\httpd.conf) with any text editor you like (e.g. Notepad):1. At the end of the config file add the following lines:DAV svnSVNListParentPath onSVNParentPath D:\SVN#SVNIndexXSLT "/svnindex.xsl"AuthType BasicAuthName "Subversion repositories"AuthUserFilepasswd#AuthzSVNAccessFilesvnaccessfileRequire valid-user

This configures Apache so that all your Subversion repositories are physically located below D:\SVN (Say). The repositories are served to the outside world from the URL: http://MyServer/svn/ . Access is restricted to known users/passwords listed in the passwd file.

Ensure that you create the repository at D:\SVN by using the following command:svnadmin create D:\SVNThe above command assumes that there is a folder called “SVN” under D:\

2. To create the passwd file, open the command prompt (DOS-Box) again, change to the apache2 folder (usually c:\program files\apache group\apache2) and create the file by entering3. bin\htpasswd -c passwdThis will create a file with the name passwd which is used for authentication. Additional users can be added withbin\htpasswdpasswd4. Restart the Apache service again.You can test your configuration by using: http://localhost:8090/svn/It assumes that Apache Server is running on 8090 port. In my case, I had something else running on 80, so configured Apache server to run on 8090

Following two sites gives wealth of information about "Branching" http://tortoisesvn.net/docs/release/TortoiseSVN_en/tsvn-dug-branchtag.html

Saturday, June 21, 2008

One of the best examples of industrialization in this century includes car manufacturing, and invention of assembly lines. Each parts of the car gets manufactured somewhere else and finally gets assembled at one place. The parts are made with such a perfection that even robots can put together various parts in no time. You might be wondering, yeah I know this and everybody knows this fact, how is this related to this software architecture blog ? Okay, here is what I wanted to ask, can the software be developed in a similar manner as a car gets manufactured ? i.e. various components can be designed and developed at various places, and shipped to one location. Some automated tools can in turn assemble these components to build an application. Finally a final test can be done by the QA team before releasing the product. I believe it is difficult to implement this idea in a software industry keeping our current understanding and knowledge in mind, however it is not impossible. Here is an article that provides more insight into the topic I am discussing.

I am sure as software developers we know the importance of designing and developing reusable and loosely coupled components. Recently in the XP discussion forum I came across a discussion on the topic of "Building Agile applications using replaceable components". It drew my attention and followed the thread to understand where it was heading. Basically the author challenges the basic assumption behind "loosely coupled components". Instead of giving my version of the details, I would let his article speak about the thoughts.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

It is important for all software architects to be aware of conducting the tradeoff analysis on the "Non Functional Requirements" (NFRs). It is better to have a handy tradeoff guide available during the design phase.The tradeoff guide could be built either based on one's own experience or by taking help from other architects/resources. It would be good, if the guide covers most of the architecture principles and the non functional requirements (also called -ilities)

I would recommend following steps while doing tradeoff analysis

Understand the customer's requirement and convert it into SMART objective

Prioritize the requirements (NFRs) by having continuous collaboration with the customer

Finally, using the tradeoff analysis guide, recommend the final design and educate the customer about the impact of the design on the priorities.